The Crimean bridge once again cut. Monday, July 17 at dawn, the authorities of the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014 by Russia, ordered the total interruption of traffic on the Kerch Strait bridge due to a “emergency in the 145 pillar area”, reported the official TASS agency. According to the Russian camp, the road suffered “damage”, two people were reportedly killed and a child injured. On October 8, 2022, this bridge had suffered a major explosion, unclaimed, before being gradually repaired. Find the latest developments in Ukrainian confit in our live.
Deadline for the Ukrainian grain agreement. After several extensions, the cereal agreement between Russia and Ukraine, under the aegis of Turkey and the UN, came to an end on Monday July 17 for lack of a new consensus. Signed in July 2022, it had already been renewed last March. This agreement notably allows Ukraine to export its wheat via the Black Sea, but also allows Russia to blow hot and cold on cereal prices around the world.
Vladimir Putin minimizes the Ukrainian counter-offensive. “All the attempts of the enemy to break through our defense (…), in particular by using strategic reserves, did not succeed during the entire period of the offensive. The enemy did not achieve success”, said the Russian president on Sunday. Speaking in an interview with the Rossia-1 TV channel, he said the situation was “positive” for the Russian forces on the front. “Our troops are behaving heroically. Unexpectedly for the adversary, they even go on the offensive in certain sectors and capture more advantageous positions,” he said.
Russia took control of assets of Carlsberg and Danone. According to a decree signed by Vladimir Putin, and published on the official Russian legal portal on Sunday, 98.56% of the shares of the Russian brewery Baltika, owned by Carlsberg, and tens of thousands of shares belonging to a Russian subsidiary of Danone are “temporarily” placed under the control of the Russian state. This decree specifies that 83,292,493,000 shares of Danone Russia, owned by the Produits Laitiers Frais Est Europe group, are placed under the control of the Russian State, as well as 85,000 other shares belonging to the Danone Trade group.